Please open your Bibles to the book of Acts chapter 2.
Verses 41 to 46 will cover Wednesday will cover Acts begin
Acts chapter 3. When Peter is asked for money
and he says silver and gold have I none but such as I have give I
thee raise up and he raises up this man, he's been crippled all
his life. Let's read Acts chapter 2 verse
41 to 46. I pray you have your Bible.
It's really good to go to church with the Bible.
Think it's important, important that you have a Bible and read
it. Then those who gladly received
his word. So there was some that didn't
receive the word like that. This is Peter's message.
We're baptised that day. About 3000 souls were added to
them, verse 42, and they that's the 3000 souls plus the 120
disciples continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and
fellowship and the breaking of bread and in prayers.
As a result, fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and
signs were done through the apostles.
Now all who believed were together and had all things in
common, sold their possessions and goods and divided them among
all. Has anyone had need So
continually daily with 1 accord in the temple and breaking bread
from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and
simplicity of heart, praising God and having favour with all
the people and the Lord added to the Church daily those who were
being saved. Spirit filled church.
When I say a spirit filled church, what thoughts come to
your mind often you know, it's like wow, that's church that
just goes crazy. You know, people running around
and doing cartwheels and noise going on and people falling all
over the place and 100 people up on the stage and microphones
going around the place and pandemonium and no.
Does the term scare you? Spirit filled church.
Maybe you've been raised in a more traditional background.
I was raised in an Anglican church, spirit filled church.
Never knew what that was. When people go looking for a
church to call their home fellowship, it depends upon your
spiritual maturity and biblical knowledge.
Knowledge of the word of God or the lack of that will determine
what church you end up going to and looking for.
It's the Christian Bain Marie. I've always thought it was Bain
Marie, but it's Bain Marie. It's like, I want one of these
to it now. I don't want any of that bit of
this, bit of this. Yeah, that's the church I want
in our Kent Hughes book and I use many of his commentaries.
He's very good. He wrote a book called Set Apart
and we are Set apart, Set apart from the world.
He writes and I quote his definitions of the modern day
types of Christians that we have now existing in our world and
their their church appetite. There is the hitchhiker
Christian. You go to the meetings, serve on
the boards and committees, you grapple with the issues, do the
work of the church, pay the bills and you'll say I'll come
along for the ride, but if things don't suit, I'll
criticise and complain and then I'll probably bail out.
I'll leave then. There are, and it's very common
to write churchless Christians, you know, people who are just,
we have this magic word called spiritual.
It's spiritual like Casper, spiritual, churchless
Christians, they are nomadic. You see, if you don't join a
church, you don't have to attend a church, You don't have to
serve at the church, and you don't have to give it a church.
If you don't join a church, you can be on the perpetual take,
just whatever's gone, and it never costs, never put your hand
on the pocket, never takes your time, no accountability.
It's consumerism without paying. It's popular.
Then there is the absolute consumer, Christian.
He says they attend one church for preaching, send their
children to another church for its youth programme, go to a
third Church of small groups and their motto is what's in this
church for me, what's in this church for me?
Then there's the spectator Christian.
You know, like spectator sports. Spectator Christians produce the
same thing. Fans.
Fans who cheer on the players whilst they themselves are in
desperate need of engagement and meaning.
Then there's the drive through Christians.
Today would be the electronic EV drive through Christians.
You get what you want and a minimum time with no more effort
than the turn of your power steering.
They get the church fixed out of the way by attending a weeknight
church service or the early church service on Sunday.
So that way I've got the rest of Sunday to do my sport and my
recreation trips. And there's the and it's popular
today. Now since COVID, we introduced
online services because remember, we weren't allowed by
law to gather. It's a relationship relation,
less Christianity. And it's very popular today.
You can go to that church in your pyjamas with a cup of
coffee, eaten toast, bowl of cereal.
I'm in church. It's all by video, nothing in
the flesh. It's virtual church where
Christ's body can be surveyed by the camera and the Word can be
heard without responsibility or accountability.
Well, I'll switch it off now. That was good.
Done my church well. Following the day of Pentecost
and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit filled.
Church was born. Church was born.
What did it look like? What did it do?
How did they react and behave? Where do we?
Calvary Chapel, Secret Harbour 2026 fit in with the Biblical
definition of the Spirit filled church according to the Word of
God. Well, we know 3000 souls are
saved. Peter's first sermon under the
anointing and power of the Holy Spirit.
Now what? These are all Jews.
They're no longer looking to Judaism.
This is a massive shift in their life.
The old covenant, Jesus now brought a new covenant.
So we're going to look at 4 things today.
If you're taking notes, the Spirit filled church is a
learning church, the Spirit Filled church is a loving
church, the Spirit filled church is a worshipping church, and the
Spirit filled church is an evangelistic church.
So let's look at the first one. A spirit filled church is a
learning church. The very first evidence that
Doctor Luke who wrote the book of Acts writes about the early
church, the spirit filled church is that Acts verse, chapter 2,
verse 42, it says, and they continued steadfastly in the
Greek that means devoted. They were constant, they
persevered. It wasn't casual, they continued
steadfastly. What in in the apostles
doctrine, Doctrine means teaching and fellowship in the
breaking of bread and in prayers.
One could say that the Holy Spirit, following Pentecost,
opened a school in Jerusalem that day with 3000 students.
No air conditioning. That's if you read in the paper.
That's what the schools are going back to.
It's teachers were the apostles whom Jesus had appointed and
there were 3000 pupils in the kindergarten.
There are those who say well I have the Holy Spirit and he, he
teaches me alone. Since the Spirit came, that's I,
I just it's him, me and him. The Word of God is irrelevant to
me now since the Spirit has come because the, you know, the law
kills. And they always say that we
don't want to be legalists. And the word of God is
irrelevant to me now. I'm just led by the Spirit.
To which we see in our text that the early church converts did
not embark on a magical mystery. Experience, spiritual experience
which led them to despise or disdain theology.
No, the exact opposite. Listen carefully because you
need to hear this. Especially in these last days.
Anti intellectualism and the fullness of the spirit are
mutually incompatible. Why?
Because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth.
Nor did these early disciples imagine that because they had
received now the filling of the Holy Spirit that he was the only
teacher that they needed and they could dispense with human
teachers. I don't go to traditional or
traditional church. God speaks to me direct.
Wow, good on you. I said big ears because in
Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11, Paul says he that's Jesus gave
himself some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists,
and some pastors and teachers. Why?
For the equipping of the Saints. That's the church.
What for? For the work of the ministry.
What the church is to do what for the edifying of the body of
Christ. Pretty simple.
Now On the contrary, after Pentecost and the Spirit of God
fell upon these 3000 souls, filled them with the Holy
Spirit, they were baptised and now they're saved.
These 3000 converts then sat at the apostles feet, hungry to
receive instruction. They wanted to know all about
the change and what had happened in their lives.
They knew about Judaism, but what now?
Jesus is the Lamb of God. That means all these scriptures
that we used to know. There's a different meaning now.
Jesus is in the text, he's the Messiah.
What about the Kingdom of God? What do we do now?
When's he coming back? So hunger for the Word of God is
always a sign of true salvation, true conversion, and not just a
religious experience. You get saved and then you can't
be bothered reading the Bible or going to church.
I doubt your salvation. You can't say that.
Yes, I did, I just did. Because when Helen and I got
saved on a Tuesday and then we went to church on the Sunday, we
went in the morning, then we went again in the evening.
Because now I had the Holy Spirit of my life and I heard
preaching and teaching of the Word of God.
I thought, where has this been all my life?
And I needed to know. And I I would see things happen
in church and I'd see money go around, lots of money.
Not like in the days when I was Anglican church.
And I'd take a shilling. Those of you old enough, what a
shilling is, it's a peso or repair.
Back in those days, a shilling wrapped up in a hanky because
I'd lose it and I'd drop it. Hanky.
You probably don't know what a hanky is.
A handkerchief is a piece of cloth you stick in your pocket.
So I'd go up to church when the offering came around and the
Anken church in there went, went.
It was just coins. No one put pounds in there.
Not the church I went to anyway. Then when I went to church where
people had got saved, I went and the plate came around.
I went, there's money, money in here.
I need to, I need to. What's going on?
I've never seen this and so I wanted to know and I wanted to
know I needed to know everything about the Bible.
So the first thing I bought book I bought besides the Bible was a
concordance. Why?
Because I needed to be able to look up.
I didn't know where to look up things where they were.
Look up the word. There it is.
It tells you the the verse and the passage.
You can go there. Still recommend that you do
that. I would take my concordance to
Bible studies because someone said turn to and I go, where's
that? There's a concordance.
There is, there is. I'm so scared about having to
look at the index. Do you do that when you come to
church? I'm not looking at the index.
I'm just saying what books I've read through the Bible.
Nehemiah. Where's Nehemiah?
What pages? Don't be bothered about that.
Just learn. We just learn hunger for the
Word of God is a sign that you are saved.
Why? Because the inner man is
starving. There's an Eskimo who would
bring a black dog and a white dog.
He owned the two to town in the village where he lived on
Saturdays. And men would bet because he
would have these two dogs fight each Saturday and which dog
would win and he would take the earnings and he he never lost
his bet. They'd bring the black dog, the
white dog. And everyone said, how do you
know which dog's going to win? It's easy when I starve and when
I feed and the one that's fed the most is the strongest, they
always win. And so that's you and I.
We have a lot of starving people sitting in church today.
Don't read their Bible, don't study the word of God, don't
know anything about the Bible. Man does not live by bread
alone, Jesus says, but by every word that proceeds from the
mouth of God. And so these 3000 people, they
were really saved. Someone says, yeah, I've made a
commitment to Christ. They don't carry a Bible.
They don't read. I go, you're in, you're in
dangerous turf because if you have made a commitment where
you're starving and the old flesh, that's the old you,
you're feeding that and that's going to dominate your life,
Rule your life, rule your individual living, rule your
marriage, rule your relationship with your kids because that's
the one you're feeding. And the the born again part,
that's a, a, a skeleton that's struggling to survive.
And so these 3000 were hungry. They continued steadfastly in
the apostles doctrine and teaching.
So a spirit filled church is a New Testament church in the
sense that it studies and submits to the New Testament
instructor. You know, we use the Old
Testament as well. But a spirit filled church is
where the information comes for the Jews.
This is how to live now. And by the way, they didn't have
the apostles. They didn't get up and go.
Let's turn to the book of Luke. Luke haven't, I haven't written
it yet. Well, let's turn to the book of
John. Nah, not on the island of Patmos
yet. Nah, not haven't written that
yet either. And what about the, the, the
appalling? He's not saved yet.
They had the Old Testament, that's all.
The Spirit of God leads the people of God to submit to the
word of God. Jesus said if you love me, keep
my commandments. You can only keep his
commandments if you know what they are, they continued
steadfastly. Second point, the spirit filled
church is a loving church. Oh well, that's what we need to
be more and more love you. We need we need to welcome
everybody and everything. Hang on a minute define
definition be discerning Acts 242 and they continued steadfast
in the apostles doctrine and the keyword is fellowship.
Fellowship is not when we come and just have a coffee together
and break bread and you know, and, and and talk about stuff.
It's the word Koinonia. Many of you know it.
It comes from the Greek word koinos.
KOINOS. It means common, the word
pictures and bears witness to the common life of the church in
two ways. It's what Christians do.
A it expresses what we share together, what you and I share
together. When you travel and you meet
another Christian somewhere in another country, you share
Christianity, you share Christ. All of a sudden you have a
brother, a sister in the Lord. You you're on the beach, you're
about to go out for a surf, and you're praying.
And I say you're praying. Yeah, man.
Well, let's pray together. Let's pray before we go out and
paddle out. You see, it expresses that you
and I, as we see here today, we share together that it is God
himself. He is our Father.
We pray the prayer, don't we, the Lord's Prayer.
We don't go my Father in my heaven.
We say our Father, don't we our father?
For our fellowship is with the Father in heaven and with his
Son Jesus Christ. He is what our Lord, He's our
Lord, our Saviour. And there is the fellowship of
the Holy Spirit. We are brothers and sisters.
Together in God's family. It's the same in a marriage.
Remember Helen just reminding me of that so that I needed to know
that we are brother and we're not just husband and wife.
We are brother and sister in Christ.
And the Bible tells us how to relate to brothers and sisters
in Christ. The church is the body of
Christ. Secondly, Koinonia also
expresses what we share together.
It's what we give as well as what we receive.
Koinonia is the word, the same word the Apostle Paul used for
the collection that he was gathering and organising among
the Greek churches to take to Jerusalem because Jerusalem,
they were starving. And the koinonikis is the Greek
word for generous. They shared their possessions
one with another. You know, we go, oh, hang on,
we're getting some dangerous stuff.
I'm not giving my keys to my car to somebody.
No, no, hold, hold. Hold your horses.
Should we do this today? You know, at different times in
church history, some have thought so and done so.
Jesus said to the rich young ruler, He said to him, Matthew
1921, go sell what they what you have.
Give it to the poor. You will have treasure in
heaven. Then follow me.
He didn't. Yet neither Jesus nor the
apostles forbid private property.
Because remember we were reading they men in their houses and in
the temple in Acts chapter 4. We're going to find out people
selling their property and lying about it.
It was Acts chapter 4-5. But the Jerusalem experiment was
never taught or practise as such beyond this time.
It was a voluntary thing. People did it off their own
back. But we as followers of Christ
are called to generosity. I, I, when people struggle with
giving and you go, well, you're going to talk about giving.
I don't, I don't do it often because it's, well, I went to
church and all we spoke about was giving.
But I struggle with people who come to know Christ as the Lord
and Saviour and never give. So you sit in the chair, someone
else is playful sucking on the air con that someone else is
playing for playing instruments and sitting up here or whatever.
We're using everyone else's stuff and you're just, you're
just bludgeon on everybody else. That's what the Greek says about
it anyway. You see, we are generous how
especially towards the poor and needy.
We sent $10,000 to Ukraine. We're sending, I think it's, I
can't remember how much per month to Israel as well. 5600,
about that 808 hundred a month to Israel for the work of Bethel
Mission, for the work in Israel. Where does that come from?
It comes from those who've been saved and who are generous.
Who could forget the story of the Good Samaritan?
That's one of the greatest stories in the Bible, Luke
chapter 10, verse 33. But a certain Samaritan as he
journeyed, came in where he was, when he from where he came where
he was. And when he saw him, that is the
guy who'd been beaten and left by the robbers, what did he do?
He had compassion on him. Remember, the others walked
around him. And this is what I love about
the story of the Good Samaritan is he picked up the guy, he
cared for them. Then he took him to the motel,
take him to the inn, pays for the accommodation of food that
he's going to need now. And he said, I'm coming back the
other way. I'll come back this way.
And if what I've given you now has gone short and you're still
looking out, having a, I'll pay what's needed.
You see, that's what the early church was about.
It was how they lived. We saw a need.
People always say, you know, I saw so and so.
You know that. You know, the church needs to do
they need help. No, you're the church.
You saw it. You help.
Well, you know, someone needs to go and fix up that old lady's
car. You know, it's just broken.
Well, you saw it. You got.
Why don't you take it down to the mechanic?
Why don't you do something about it?
You're the church. You see, the Israelites in the
Old Testament under the Old Covenant were called to give a
tenth of their produce so that the Levites, because they were
given no land, that was their way of source of income.
They were the priests, the stranger, the fatherless and the
widow could be supported. It was social welfare before
there was social welfare. How can spirit filled believers
possibly give less? Or do I have to type?
No, you don't. And in fact, you think that way.
Keep your money because God don't need money that's given on
earth. Yeah.
Hang on a minute.
I'll just sort through was that A10 I gave meant to be a 5.
The principle is stated twice in Acts verse 45.
They gave to anyone as had need. This church does that.
Acts 434 Nor was there anyone among them who lacked for all
who were possessors of lands or houses, sold them voluntarily
bought the proceeds of the things that were sold.
And then verse 35, Here's another thing some of you are
not going to like. And they lay them at the
apostles feet, and the apostles distributed to each one as
anyone had need. It's not like here it is.
And this is where the money's got to go.
No, there's no strings attached. It goes to where the leaders of
the church, the apostles that this time said this is where the
need is to this family or to that need.
And I'm like, no, that's a that's only to go to there.
I'll give, but it's only to go there.
No, you don't direct or call the direction or corral the
direction. They lay them at the apostles
feet and they, the apostles distributed to each one as
anyone had need. So a spirit filled church is a
giving church. This church is a giving church.
Thirdly, a spirit filled church is a worshipping church.
Soon as we say worshipping, we automatically go to oh, that's
what all this is about. That's part of it.
It's just part of it. In Acts 242 they continued
steadfastly in the apostles doctrine of fellowship.
Here's the worship in the breaking of bread 1 and in
prayers, 22 separate items. Their fellowship was expressed
not only in caring for each other, but in corporate worship
as well. The definite article in both
expressions, literally the breaking of the bread and the
prayers, suggests a reference to the Lord's Supper on the one
hand and prayer services or meetings corporate the whole
church, rather than private prayer on the other hand.
Yes, there's a place for private prayer, absolutely, but also the
church, a spirit filled church, has people come and gather to
the corporate prayer meeting. This is what a spirit filled
church looks like. There are two aspects of the
early church worship which reveal to us today a beautiful
balance. One, it was both formal and
informal. Acts 246.
So they continued daily with 1 accord where in the temple.
Now these were Christians. Now the Jews were still going to
the temple. We'll find Peter and and and
John doing that, weren't they? They're on their way to a prayer
meeting at the temple when they'll heal this guy coming up
and breaking your bread from house to house.
Formal, informal. It is surprising that the early
church believers filled with the Spirit of God, continued for a
while in the temple. But they did.
They did not immediately abandoned what might be called
the institutional church, their upbringing, but I do not believe
they continued in participating now that they're saved in the
sacrifices that went on in the temple.
For they had begun to grasp that these had been fulfilled.
How? In the sacrifice of Christ.
He's the Messiah, the sacrifice to end all sacrifice.
No more need for the blood of animals.
Jesus was the Lamb of God, but they definitely continued in the
prayer services at the temple. We'll see that in the next
chapter. Whilst we are told at the same
time they supplemented, so they added to the temple services
with more informal and spontaneous meetings, including
the breaking of bread in their homes.
So secondly, the second example of the balance of the early
church's worship is that it was both joyful and reverent.
We, you know, the old pendulum, you know, we kind of go, man, I
went to a church and they, yes, man, that was like going to a
funeral service, wasn't it, man? Just and then the other one, you
go, man, that wasn't like a funeral service.
That was like a circus. It's like, I don't know when the
clowns are coming on, what's going on.
Didn't know what was going on. It was good wait for the service
to be over. I don't know whether I was going
to be called out the stage and if someone pushed me over or
throw something on me or what was going on.
There is no doubt about their joy.
I was saved for We are told of them as having glad and sincere
hearts. Verse 46, Glad and sincere
hearts. It says they ate their food with
gladness and simplicity of heart.
The fruit of the spirit, part of the flavour.
Love is what? Joy.
Yes, every service, every time we gather should be a joyful
celebration, as we have done this morning of the mighty acts
of God we sang about through Jesus Christ.
It is right in public worship to be dignified.
Shouldn't be chaotic, just something, someone running
around, someone drawing your attention away to themselves.
Now our focus as we worship is on an audience of one We are
worshipping as a choir. They're the musicians, wear the
choir, and we are singing the same words with 1 accord to A to
the audience of one gone alone. That's what worship is.
But joy was never irreverent. If the joy in God is the
authentic work of the Spirit, it is, then so too is the fear of
God. I don't know about you, but
often during times of worship I'm in awe.
So I'm reminded as we sing, especially the Psalms and
scriptures, I'm I'm reminded of my sinfulness.
I'm reminded of God. We sang about God's mercy,
mercy. It's new every morning.
I need His mercy here because I send enough the day before.
I need to wake up to mercy, not judgement.
So there is the fear of God and I worship Him out of fear of Him
because He is the holy God and I'm only in His presence by the
grace of God, by coming in His name.
Prior to Christ, I couldn't come into His presence.
A sinful man can't come into the presence of God.
But at the same time in the in the the early church, verse 43,
it says, notice this. Then fear came upon every soul
and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.
The Spirit filled church is a church that is full of joy, but
also a church full of awe and reverence.
The spiritual church is an evangelistic church.
What does that mean? Means we're concerned about the
lost. So we've spoken of the interior
life of a spiritual church, the early church, within the walls
of what was going on, what they did.
But these tell us nothing about its compassionate outreach to a
lost world of sinners. Because on the surfboards there,
as you go out, it tells us, Mark, where to go, where we come
worship. And then what do we do?
We go into the world and what we preach the gospel to who?
To every creature, to a lost world.
And that action, you and I, when we're in the presence of God, we
worship him, we honour him, we give to him, then we are
changed. And then when we go out, we are
automatically thinking of the lost people who are have no,
they have, they have no hope. They can have money, they can
have a house, they can have all lots of things, but they're,
they're lost, don't they? As you get older, don't don't
you see people in a different way now?
You hear people talk to you at work and you they talk about
their situations, their problems with their kids and problems in
their marriage or problems in there, and you think their life
is just a cacophony of brokenness, heartache, sorrow,
and there's no light at the end of the tunnel while we just get
divorced. We have nothing to do with the
son. We don't talk to him.
We've quit that. We don't speak and that's that's
as we, you and I go out. That's the world.
We go out into a broken world. It says in verse 47 praising God
and having favour with all the people.
Notice what it says here. And the Lord added to the church
daily those who were being saved.
This is one of the most frustrating things as a pastor.
I can give an old call at every service and I have nothing to
do. I can't do anything I can't you.
You can go to your brother and sister and and they can be
struggling and you can talk to them, but you can't save them.
And it breaks your heart, doesn't it?
You talk to a couple that have troubles in their marriage and
you talk, but they need the Lord and you, there's nothing you can
do about that. But we can pray for them.
But it's the Lord, only the Lord who can save a soul.
How, you ask, did Jesus do this? And the Lord added to the
church? Well, he did it through the
preaching of the apostles, the witness of the church members as
they went out into the community, the impressive
genuine love of their common life that that people saw the
church and thought, man, I wouldn't mind being what is it
that these people have and their example as they were praising
God, enjoying the favour of all the people.
Verse 47 yet it was Christ who did it for he is the head of the
church. If you have a blessed marriage
and you're both of your believers, you've been, maybe
you've been given a child, a birth of a child, and you're a
Christian couple, You know what? When people say, oh, that's not
wonderful, yet the Lord is good. Tell people who brought the
child. He's the one who created the
little baby. Tell people about how God, yeah,
God has helped us in our marriage.
I see you get on really well with your son.
Yeah, we're both walking in the Lord together.
We're learning. And you know, we pray together,
tell people that it's the Lord, because it's not.
It's got nothing to do with you, nothing to do with me.
It is Christ Jesus alone who has the prerogative to admit people
into his Kingdom. You know, if you're a Christian
here today, it's only because Jesus did it.
Think about that. If you're a Christian here this
morning, it is only because of the love of Jesus Christ upon
your life. That's staggering.
You had nothing to do with it. Jesus said John 1516.
You didn't choose me, I chose you and appointed you.
John 1519 If you're of the world, the world would love it's
own yet because you're not of the world, but I chose you out
of the world. Second thing about an
evangelistic church is what Jesus did was two things
together. He added to their number those
who were being saved and note He did not add them to the church
without saving them. I want you to note this because
this is very different to what's happening today.
Only those who went to this church in Jerusalem were those
who got saved. There is no nominal Christianity
at the beginning of the early church.
I just go along, you know, because they have great coffee,
a lot of music. That didn't happen.
The only ones who went to this church where people got saved
from the Lord, he added to their number.
There is no such thing today either.
And then as solitary Christianity either.
I'm a Christian. Yeah, I don't go to church.
No, sorry. Don't work that way.
That is an oxymoron. There is no such thing as
solitary Christianity, salvation and being part of Christ's early
church. The local church go together.
They still do. Thirdly, and the Lord added to
the church daily those who were being saved.
The Lord added people daily. It's an imperfect verb, meaning
kept adding more people, kept on getting saved.
The early church's evangelism was not an occasional or
sporadic activity. In other words, yeah, we got a
salvation meaning coming up in three months time.
Let's get to it. And that's how the church went
off into those programmes. Nothing against, you know, the
outreaches of Billy Graham and such like, Awesome.
But the early church was growing because the Lord added people
daily. It was not an occasion or a
sporadic activity. No, just as their worship was
daily, verse 46, so too was their witness each time they
went to the marketplace, each time they gathered water for
their water to take home. Their outreach was a natural
flaw on of being in a spirit filled church in the apostles
doctrine, breaking bread and praying together.
Pastor Chuck Smith used to say healthy sheep fed healthy fed
sheep, bigot healthy sheep. You know, people have often
asked, you know, what's the programme for Calvary Chapel,
Secret Harbour 2026 Teach the word of God, pray, gather,
worship the Lord. Because as you come and you grow
and you get closer to the Lord, then you go back out into the
community, you're evangelising, you're witnessing, you're
praying, you're sharing, you're seeing need, you're helping.
And so the work of the Holy Spirit goes out in you.
You do the work. It's not like, well, we're going
to have a programme, we'll spend so much money and get everyone
to come and what happens? Nothing happens.
Then everyone goes and we pack up and clean them.
Well, that went well. Had a lot of people come
anything happen? Nope.
So the early church spirit filled was all about
relationships. One they first related to the
apostles doctrine and we're in submission to it.
And then this is a rare book. You know, I gave six of these
out to the Fremantle Dockers Football Club pre Christmas.
Haven't heard a word back from those who who place them before
their lockers yet. But you know, the problem is
this is missing in your life, in the life of your marriage and in
the life of the church. This is where God speaks to us.
This is how the Holy Spirit directs and guides us through
this. And I want you to be hungry for
it. You'll only be hungry for it if
you know Christ. You won't be bothered with it if
you're a churchgoer, just a churchgoer.
Don't need it. It's an unemployment.
Never read it. Have no use for it.
Secondly, the early church spirit filled.
They were related to each other in genuine care and love.
One of the things that snuck in to us and you know, back in the
old days. Remember I rated my brother's
band aid tin. I forget the band aid tin.
He had a laser pass. He used to keep shillings in
there. So what do I do?
I decided to be a big spender one day.
Take out about four shillings, walk down to the corner store,
got all the kids in the neighbour ice creams are on me.
Double header, 6 foot. Go ahead, go.
Hey, ice cream, you are. Who are you?
I don't even give the kid an ice cream.
Get home, Mum comes in. Didn't go down the shop by.
Oh, no, because the corner store, the lady around the
corner store knew everybody. Yeah.
And so I don't know why I've told that story.
You see, lost, they had a genuine love and care for one
another. And they did it because they
were really concerned about others.
What happens is you and I come to church these days and we've
got like, there's a service nearly finished.
He's winding up. Come on, let's get going.
We don't want to be talking to anyone.
Got the motor running. I'll go out, get the car
started, get the kids. Come on, grab the kids early.
We don't want to. We don't want to have to talk.
I don't know. And they're coming.
Someone's coming over to say, come on, let's get out of here.
Because we want church without being touched.
We don't want to be accountable. We don't have to talk to
someone. We don't have to get on with
someone. Proverbs says iron sharpens
iron. You see, The thing is, if you're
a believer, you have a gift. God says we at least all have
one gift and your gift is for everybody else.
It's not for you. So when you're here, you bring
your gift. You know, do you know everybody?
Do you know, you know how many people in church have cancer at
the moment? You know, how many people are
going through tough times at the moment?
Do you know, do you have any idea?
You should not because you're a gossip, but because you're
concerned about people. See how they're not here, how
they struggling. Thirdly, the early church, they
related to God in worship. They worshipped him in the
temple and at home in the Lord's Supper and in prayers with joy
and reverberance. When we celebrate, I always give
a warning that the Lord's Supper we're going to have.
It's time to get your kids. Talk to your kids.
Are they old enough to have the bread and the wine?
Because they they shouldn't take it if they don't know what
they're doing and if they know what they're doing.
Have they been baptised? Are they reading the Bible?
He said it just thought it just you just can't.
Yeah, your common kids will just do this, you see.
No, no, you got to do it right. Spiritual church is a
worshipping church. And lastly, they were related to
the world in outreach. They were engaged in continuous
evangelism. No self centred, there weren't a
self contained church. No self contained church can
claim to be spirit filled because the Holy Spirit is that
missionary spirit. So as we wrap this up, you can
wake up the person next to you. He's finished early today.
What? I usually got another 10 minutes
from him. What has God spoken to you about
today? Because you're going to hear it
and go out and do nothing and be a fool or you can hear it and
apply it and be a wise man. Is God calling you this morning?
You say, Keith, I'm not part of it.
I don't. I'm just popped in.
I just, I come here occasionally.
Well, then you have an occasional God.
Oh no, I'm you know, I no Bible tells me different.
You have an occasional relationship.
Are you serious with the Lord? Are you serious about being part
of the body of Christ? Has God chosen you to be part of
this church or another church? Because you need to be part of
some church. If you say what church suits
you, drive through, you know, Bain Marie, one bit of this, bit
of that, Oh, I don't want that Christ Spirit filled church
exists. I want to ask you, are you part
of it?